Kentucky assistant coach Kenny Payne talks with freshman Nick Richards during the game against Louisville.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Until recently, players on the Kentucky basketball team didn’t know assistant Kenny Payne went to college at Louisville.

“And when they did find out they thought I was a football player,” Payne said Monday.

Payne, in his eighth season on John Calipari’s Wildcats staff and a player on Louisville’s 1986 championship team, continues to be mentioned as a possible candidate to take over the Cardinals’ program after this season.

“Louisville changed my life,” Payne said. “As a young kid coming from Mississippi to be able to be on the national championship team and learn basketball from a Hall of Fame coach (Denny Crum), I have love for Louisville. But I have an obligation and love for the University of Kentucky and the guys sitting in this locker room.”

Any speculation about the future, Payne says, is unfair to Louisville interim coach David Padgett and the players, who were tasked with a “tough situation” this season after coach Rick Pitino was fired.

“There’s veteran coaches that can’t do what he’s doing right now,” Payne said of Padgett, who has guided Louisville to a 13-4 record. “… He’s done a great job. It’s unfair to him to have any coach mentioned or any situation mentioned other than do the best job for that school right now. They should stay in the moment and try to win as many games as they can. That’s the best answer I can give you.”

Payne said he wants to lead a college basketball program one day, but he’s “not in a rush.”

“I’m not taking a bad job. I love what I do,” he said. “I’ve been blessed to be working with a coach like Coach Cal, who’s a good man. I’ve been blessed to be working with young men that are exceptional men that similar to me — dream chasers, that are out trying to do something special. I don’t take that lightly, so when the right time comes, hopefully it does. If it doesn’t, I can live with it.”

Payne, who currently makes $700,000 at Kentucky and will earn $800,000 in each of the next two seasons, is often credited for the development and improvement of Kentucky’s players, especially big men including Anthony Davis, Karl-Anthony Towns and others.

He routinely arrives early to practice to mentor players, as was the case in December when Courier Journal observed Payne working with freshman forward Nick Richards before a practice open to the media.

“You’ve got to have people that want you and in Kenny’s case, there are people that will want him and now it’s just, what is a good job for him?” Calipari said last month. “The greatest thing for Kenny is that this university’s made it so that he doesn’t have to leave unless it’s a really good job.”